by candlelight

for those of you who didn't know: Earth Hour occurred today. what is Earth Hour you ask? according to earthhour.org, this is the brief explanation:

On March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming – coal-fired electricity – by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. What began as one city taking a stand against global warming caught the attention of the world.
In 2008, 24 global cities will participate in Earth Hour at 8pm on March 29. Earth Hour is the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis. It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.

so yeah, at this point, you've missed it. but you can a) participate next year or b) have your own Earth Hour any time!

it turned out pretty awesomely tonight, because Earth Hour occurred at the same time at the Team Up Gear Up: Biking Against Human Trafficking conference call where we got to hear David Gutnick from the CBC in Canada talk about slavery in 3 different african countries. it was very interesting. especially sitting here by candlelight on the call, wondering if others on the call were also sitting by candlelight (or in the dark). at one point, david talked about one of the cities he was in where parents sold their kids into slavery, mostly unknowingly - thinking their kids were being sent off to work and in turn be put through schooling, which of course never happened. and a couple young girls who had escaped from their masters and found their way back home had started an anti-slavery club - trying to educate the adults in their town about what was really happening to their kids. and they started this radio show. because, David said, they dont have electricity there, but battery run radios are really popular, because when the sun goes down every night at 6ish and the family is sitting around a candle, listening to the radio was the best option around. and so they'd sit by candlelight listening to this anti-slavery show put on by young kids who had escaped. and upon hearing this, while sitting by my candle here - there was just something about that i found incredibly wonderful.

and on a side note, while electricity is wonderful, there is something pure and simple about sitting by candlelight. and i think i shall do it more often. a few years back, my roommate at the time gave me a book about how to make candles. i sadly have never used it :( but maybe this night could inspire me to learn and make candles [you know, in my spare time!] and start spending more evenings by candlelight, and maybe in doing so, remember those around the world who have no other option.

finally back in little rock

well, it turns out that today has been a pretty great day. i feel so very lucky. working for only 90 minutes this morning was fantastic. and i was able to pull into the EMI parking lot at like 10:30am. it felt different in the building... quiet, empty, more like a mellow coffee shop well decorated with fancy lounging areas and places to play and listen to good music as opposed to an office. it almost even feels strange to think that i used to work there. [of course, when i, out of habit, almost walked into my old office rather than jess' - that was pretty funny. guess old habits die slower than memories.] glad to find out i'm still being prayed for because i dont go to church. unfortunate, though, that the old boss wasnt in town. i thought about filling his office with balloons for him to come back to, but figured everyone else that was working wouldnt really appreciate that! so i stayed much longer than expected, which is no surprise. i still know it's good and right for me not to be in nashville anymore, but every time i get to see the people i interacted with in nashville, i think i appreciate them more. when i finally realized how late it was and that i needed to get back on the road, i thought i only had a 5 hour drive, but it ended up taking closer to 6. not sure if that's because of traffic or the accident i came across or what, but no big deal. i made it, unloaded the car and got my mail and will save laundry for later this weekend.
oh, and i've decided that i need to carry my little recording device with me when i drive, particularly after i'm leaving places, because i always seem to have deep thoughts and comments that i would love to write down, and yet, blogging while driving is a definite impossibility. i'll have to work on that for the future.

thursday!

so i'm very excited because TOMORROW! i get to drive home! not so many people would be so excited to drive 7 hours, but i am. it feels like its been forever since i've been in little rock. in fact when i left nashville on sunday, i almost felt like that's where i was supposed to go back to after this week. WHOA! think that was moreso about the people i saw, not nashville itself :) but yeah, i'm very excited after 10 days to be going home! this is good preparation for the next few months i suppose! plus it means i only have to be 'at work' for an hour tomorrow morning! and then i get to have friday in the office to study! its crazy! hopefully little rock is all i'm hoping to return to! at least i have my dried mango! a bit sweet but i've adjusted a bit and will definitely be able to eat it all. yum!!

Biking Against Human Trafficking

hey, if anyone ever sees this - something just started today that you should know about. it's called Biking Against Human Trafficking - it's just a few people trying to raise awareness and efforts to stop human trafficking (which includes people sold as sex slaves in modern day slavery, people tricked into prostitution) - its about this going on not just around the world but also here in the united states.

starting yesterday [i think] through next monday, every night at 8pm central time a conference call is being held with different organizations that are fighting human trafficking around the world. tomorrow [tuesday] night the call is with 3 organizations out of thailand, which is a major area of human trafficking.

i just want everyone to know this is going on, to challenge you to spend 30-45 minutes of your day listening in to these conference calls and learning about a topic you may know nothing about (i dont know anything about it...). the website is below - it tells you the basics. but also, if you see this, here's the number: 218-486-1600 and then the code is: 472085#

http://www.freewebs.com/baht/

also, the cause is on my facebook profile: join the cause.

happy easter

well, here we are at easter 2008. cant believe it's already march 24, 2008. it's a rare opportunity to be blogging in tennessee, i dont expect it to happen ever again, unless i get into blogging mode later this week. this past weekend i had the opportunity to spend some large amounts of time with some old friends in nashville. i arrived friday night not having any plans for the weekend really, i just knew i wanted to spend quality time with people i wasnt sure when i'd get to see again. it might be an understatement to say that many people, having experienced the same weekend, might not have found it enjoyable at all, but i thought it was just great. the friends i stayed with live a life perhaps unlike a majority of americans. among the six of them, they share a 3 bedroom apartment. [which yeah, sounds normal!] in bedroom 1 - one married couple and their 7 month old baby. in bedroom 2 - married couple number 2. in bedroom 3 - a single gal. i was graced with an air matress in the living room which was great! and more than i was expecting!! it is somewhat funny, because i think the living situation is great - i see all the benefits, and while yes, it comes with various sacrifices, to me [and them i'd presume] the benefits FAR outweigh the sacrifices. so for the weekend it meant being around great people all the time! the 7 month old [justus] is absolutely precious! and is always surrounded by 5 people who absolutely love him all the time! i jumped right on that bandwagon because, well, that age just grips my heart! we had homemade pizza friday night, it was delicious. they're learning lots about nutrition [yep, many things that others might not agree with, but very natural, very organic, very old fashioned stuff] and so the whole weekend i got to partake in incredibly yummy foods that they cooked. couldn't have asked for anything better. saturday morning we spent a few hours at panera [oh, the best bagels. i love them so] and began studying 2 Timothy. studying 2nd Timothy was the ongoing event of the weekend - we just barely finished before dinner sunday night! it was wonderful spending so much time reading my bible, really studying it, trying to understand each verse - question things that didnt make sense and make connections with other things read. the weekend went by incredibly quick and i truly did not want to leave! all day already i've thought back with joy overy so many moments of the weekend. eating dried mango which was delish [and then eating dried mango tonight that tasted totally different from what i had saturday!!] making justus laugh and laugh and laugh. finding new meaning in becoming a commissioned examiner. i'm very lucky to have gotten to visit them once more before they move at the end of may up to milwaukee, and i cannot wait to go visit them up there as soon as i can :)

Go Kansas! [what?!!!!]

so here's the deal. on this fine sunday evening i am overly excited!!! i really need to go eat dinner. and pack. but in the meantime, i am excited! this week basically begins the summer madness. i go to tennessee for 2 weeks for work, come back for a week, go to DC for 2 weeks for work, go to fayetteville for a week for work, then go to dallas for 10 weeks for work. my time at home is going to become extremely limited, but lots of fun should be in store. especially because amidst all this traveling craziness, basketball is happening, and tonight my friends and i drafted teams for a little friendly competition and i am excited! my picks turned out as follows:
round 1: Kansas (1)
round 2: UConn (4)
round 3: Washington State (4)
round 4: Indiana (8)
round 5: Oregon (9)
round 6: Georgia (14)
round 7: Temple (12)
round 8: Mississippi Valley State (16)
it should be written down in the books that i will be cheering for kansas. and even tho i pretty much will never be in town to watch a game with everyone else, i am still very excited and will definitely be watching from wherever my travels take me.
in addition to this greatness, more fun is that an old college buddy of mine is stopping through town tomorrow night! i havent seen him in years and am stoked that he is able to stop in little rock on his way down to phoenix! which is why i need to get packed as best as i can tonight! because tomorrow night i will not want to pack i would guess!
so hooray! now that i've written down my excitement, i can go eat my peanut butter sandwhich for dinner and then get on with the packing, super mario, movie watching, etc that will further my evening entertainment!!

fake-baking

okay. this just humors me to no end. there's a reason i am normally not a fan of fake-baking and this goes to prove me correctly. obviously no need to go into details, but let's just say that if i feel the need to fake-bake some more, i will go pay at a nice stand-up tanning place and not go for free simply because its FREE! and its a good thing i dont have to wear a bikini in front of anyone tomorrow :)

blogs from boredom = boringness to the extreme

so here it is.. thursday night. Lost is supposed to be on right now and it appears its not because of basketball games. which makes me incredibly sad. it was going to be such a great night. so instead here i sit. i am hoping that by chance lost will come on late after the games, we'll see. it's been a pretty long week. i'm beginning to think that there's a connection between my crazy weird dreams and a lack of interaction with people. i've been relatively productive at work this week (while i'm not daydreaming about the most random things). but it is kinda bleh to get up at 5:30, say hello to my computer. go into work, sit in my cube for 9 hours straight, come home, and sit in my apartment for another several hours, go to bed, and do it again. i guess being home [as opposed to being out of town at a bank] isnt all its cracked up to be. and since i wished 3 more weeks of this upon myself...lovely. for whatever reason i've decided the fake-bake concept would be good entertainment. it is free after all. i went over today. i only made it 14 minutes before i felt like my skin was on fire so i wimped out. i'll try again tomorrow, work my way up, do some fake sun damage to my skin. but hey, it's free and now perhaps i wont be ridiculously pale. not that anyone will ever see that as most of the time i have so many layers of winter clothes on. speaking of winter. i think spring might actually be here. its been in the 70s all week. i freakin love it. i turned my heat/air off and open the occasional window. that's a highlight.
by far the best part of today was when i was talkin to mom on the way home from work today. we've got a family reunion in august in colorado, which in and of itself was super exciting to me. i cannot wait. it will be awesome. but then my mom suggested that our family stay out a few extra days, stay in breckenridge, go rafting... GO RAFTING??? what?! i never EVER EVER EVER ever EVER! thought i'd hear my parents recommend some outdoor activity like that. needless to stay that had me grinning for a good many minutes. and then i talked to my friend in florida about possibly going on a cruise to the bahamas over memorial day weekend (which would be CRAZY but awesome, especially if more of our friends wanted to go!!). and there you go. that's been the light and fluffy version of my week.
i think that basketball game is almost over, so i'm gonna go see if maybe lost is going to come on. if not, i think i'll just put in friends and go to bed.

the worst thing

it is the worst thing ever to have so much i want to write about and literally no time to do it. that's what i get for choosing to start my workday at 7am... but perhaps to spur myself on later:
-the all over the place crazy dream
-the massively huge bug that was a wasp when i killed it but a monster thing with spaghetti-like tenacles when we went to throw it away (down the bathtub drain).
-the friends parents
-shogun and the road up cantrell with the bridge
-friends house/coffee house
-more reflections on seeing people of my past
-AT
-life buddy

the disservice of forgetfulness.

so, i find myself here again. here being sitting on my bed because for one, it's the only place i get internet access and two, my blankets are warm and i am cold. lovely itunes brings choice music. not sure if music sets my mood or if my mood chooses the music. [by the way, for today it appears to be happy music. "God's Romance" by Delirious, and the "brave" cd by Nichole Nordeman]

this weekend was pretty terrific. costly, but terrific. yesterday morning my alarm went off at 3:30am. at 6:15 i flew off to chicago. i arrived in chicago, where the temperature was 14 degrees and there were flurries in the air. i forgot how long it'd been since i've been up north. [probably 3 years] like, i really forgot. it was a good start to the following 36 hours. i finally found the avis rental car place and picked up my crappy little Toyota Yaris. it made me extremely grateful for my lovely new saturn vue. so me and the yar take off across the state. i forgot how long it'd been since i drove across illinois. [4 years] i wasnt prepared for the toll road. they took like $4.50 from me. but we made it. welcome to Clinton, Iowa. i'm not sure if i've actually ever been in iowa before. it smelled funny.] i found my hotel, went shopping, and went to see a movie. my hotel was sweet. well, it was a sweet suite. 2 separate rooms, 2 tvs, pretty awesome for like $80. I saw Fools Gold at the movies - pretty good. at this point in the day i was quite enjoying my little adventure. oh, yeah, so the whole point of this outing was that my old college roommate was getting married. so 3ish i get ready for the wedding, head out at 4 - the church is like 25 miles away, wedding starts at 5, thought i'd be good. right, so this is why i need GPS. i got lost. i freaked out. my poor parents who regularly deal with me getting lost and calling [never in a pleasant or appreciative mood mind you] and they always save the day. the church was literally in the middle of nowhere. the road was icy - i was running up from where i parked thinking 'this is bad. not supposed to run up a gravel ice covered road in heels, in a dress'. so i finally race in just before the wedding started. saw that a few other old college roommates were also there. the ceremony was great - the pastor spoke to the bride and groom, telling each about what their call in marriage was. it was good.

from here we're off to the reception. i call mom to thank her for saving me earlier. she asks if i'm following someone to the reception. i say no, i've got good directions this time. of course, they're only good if i actually follow them. but no, i think i know another way to go and frustrate myself. at this point in the night i was a little concerned about spending the evening with people i havent seen or hardly even spoken with over the past 4 years. at the church, it didnt feel like conversation came easily - so there was potential for a long reception. however, upon finally finding the reception, it turned out to be pretty terrific. i forgot how much i enjoyed having these people in my life. it was hard though, because i was the one that in a sense turned my back on them. when i left ohio, i kind of left wanting to only look ahead, figure out what i was supposed to do with this life. i didnt really look back, i didnt make an effort to keep in touch with people. i remember one time going back to visit and driving back to nashville from dayton, i cried for the first hour of my drive, wondering what in the heck i was doing. and so at this wedding, i got to remember and appreciate this incredible people, and it was neat. it wasnt really remember great times we'd had in college, but it was remembering personalities. i'd forgotten how well i knew these friends. how could a person forget like this? it amazed me really.

after the reception i made it back to the hotel almost on the first try and went straight to sleep. today i was... wow, so it's 9pm now. i wasnt even originally supposed to be flying back from chicago until 9:30! i ended up shelling out $25 more to get on an earlier flight. i raced the clock back from clinton to chicago. i thought i was prepared for the tolls. i was wrong. by the time i got to the last one, which i didnt know was there, i didnt have enough money. and there was no person there. so i threw in all the change i had, and drove on. i felt like i was breaking the law, but what was i supposed to do. getting back early this afternoon was a particular treat. and so that was my weekend. little rock to chicago to clinton iowa to port byron illinois back to clinton, back to chicago, back to little rock - all in 36 hours.

it's interesting. reflecting on seeing these old friends again, i think i've even forgotten who i am, who i've been, things i enjoy, qualities i cherish in other people and how they stir in me different desires in life. by the end of the reception i felt like i didnt know myself, perhaps because i've forgotten details of my journey through life. to me, that's hard to deal with and accept. it makes me question the choices i make, and it makes me want a Constant in my life. [which is not to say i dont have any constants in my life.. that one's too long to clarify!] if you watch Lost - a few episodes back that was a key point - if you dont have a constant in your life when you feel like your life is all over the place, it will eventually kill you.

in conclusion, i come from a family that believes everything happens for a reason. what a shame it is then to forget our past. and in particular, the people who have inevitably shaped who we are today.

back to crazy

so it's been a long weekend. i took full advantage of being home for this past week - it's almost like being on vacation except not really. tomorrow i pretty much leave for 2 weeks straight. weekdays will be spent in lovely searcy arkansas (referenced earlier in the mad butcher post - but this time i actually work and stay in searcy). next weekend should be a fabulous yet exhausting break. an old college roommate is getting married so i'm flying to chicago, basically driving to iowa (fastest/cheapest route? who knows... i decided not to try and figure that out after everything was scheduled). so yeah, i'm very excited for the old friends i get to see, most of whom i havent seen since spring of 2004 i think. my flight leaves saturday morning at like 6:15, and then sunday my flight gets back at 11:30. so friday when i get home from work it will be a funny chaotic few hours of packing for both the weekend and the following week of work so that when i get back sunday night i can pretty much go straight to sleep. oh, and hopefully baking a cake as well for the duke v unc game saturday (yeah, i realized after volunteering to make that that i wouldnt even be at the game b/c hello, i'll be hours and hours away). but i think its a good thing the next two weeks are busy, i've spent too much time lately contemplating life, i need to spend time again just living it :) so yeah. two crazy weeks, perhaps a good preparation for what is going to happen to my life starting in april!